Tony: The finalists for the YA catagory of the Lamda Literary Awards are almost always from manstream publishers.
Arthur: There's less segmentaion in the BFYR area. (There's no "gay teen" section. Gay YA is shelved with all YA.)
Tony: Really satisfying careers happen when talented writers writer to this niche about which they are passionate. (Visit Lamda Literary at http://www.lambdaliterary.org/ to learn more about their awards and programs.)
Lee: He started his blog, I'm Here, I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? two and a half years ago when he realized there was no "safe space" on the web that readers could go to as a resource for LGBTQ material.
Nick: Invites queries.
Noah: Don't hold back on what you want to create. It will stunt you creatively.
Lee: The tides have turned. There are about 250 books on his blog right now. Things are moving forward. And there's crossover into adult readership when it comes to LGBTQ YA lit. (Adults are reading the books the didn't have available when they were teens.) There are so many stories that need to be told--mid-grade crush books, fantasy, graphic novels.)
Aaron: Don't be afriad to tell the story in your heart. We have not reached critical mass when it comes to coming out stories. He's writing the book he wanted to read when he was young. (It's a YA memior that will be published y Little, Brown.) And he had to get over his own inner-homophobia to begin to put it on the page.
Arthur: It's not just gay teens reading gay YA. Straight kids are reading them, too. But we're not living in "a rainbow land of golden goodness." It's important to strap on your blinders when you're writing. Don't focus on possible outcomes. Just focus on the story.
Tony: Homophobia still exists in the culture and institutionally. Choosing to write a beautiful LGBTQ story is a choice that could present obstacles. Those writers are choosing to battle those obstacles. That shouldn't stop an artist from telling the story they want to tell.
Aaron Hartzler (author and SCBWI Director of Communications) moderated a panel including Arthur Levine (Scholastic VP and Publisher), Lee Wind (blogger,
leewind.org), and Tony Velenzuela (Executive Director, Lamba Literary and writer), Nick Eliopulos (Scholastic Editor), and Noah Woods (illustrator and writer) discuss LGBTQ books for young readers.
Arthur: There's a change in the market place from the past 10-20 years. It's no big deal to publishers, writers, book buyers, etc. to have books with LGBTQ content/charcters/themes. Yeah, your book may get banned or burned...yay! Publicity.
Nick: There's not that much out there. There are a lot of aspects to the gay experience that haven't been covered, so there's a lot of oportunity in this area.
Noah: You avoid authenticy if you censor yourself and avoid LGBTQ material.
* Disclaimer: The inclusion of the above image is not a commentary on Cheer Bear's sexuality. However we strongly believe he/she is an ally of the LGBTQ children's literature community.
Before Nick joined Scholastic in April, he worked at Random House for five and a half years. He grew up reading comic books, and today, is a middle grade and YA guy who tends to do “guy” books because he’s a guy editor.
His mission at Scholastic is to do MG novels and graphic novels (but also some YA).
Plot or voice? He describes himself as more of a plot guy than a voice guy, but you want both.
"If I’m sitting on 10 submissions, the one I want to read next tends to be the one with the hook," he said. "I don’t think that a great plot is enough if the writing isn’t there. I’m not going to champion publishing a book that’s a great idea that doesn’t fulfill that idea. When I do get to that quiet, voice driven book, sometimes that will really speak to me and it doesn’t matter that it isn’t a high concept plot."
It's easier to envision going in and championing that really cool plot—that high concept idea with the rest of the acquisition team, he said.
What book makes him drool? One book he wishes he'd been involved with: The Hunger Games. And even though he works at Scholastic, he has to wait with the rest of us poor fools to find out what happens to Katniss (and Peeta and Gale). He also loves John Green and Scott Westerfeld.
Nick is specifically looking for "guy high concept."
"If you can show off the bat that you have an original idea, I'm going to be excited to put your submission at the top of the stack," he said.
What should you avoid doing in a submission? He loves to get a sense of the author--the relationship is such a big part of the job. On the flip side, if something has been blindly sent out and isn't the sort of thing he's doing--say picture books--in that case, he's not inclined to pass it along to a colleague. It's a taboo to make more work for other people. Sometimes people contact him via Facebook, which he finds "kind of awkward." But he responds to it.
If someone read an interview with him on a blog, for example, and is sending him something he is looking for, that's OK.
Not everyone is going to be able to convey their high concept in one sentence (Nick says he has a team of colleagues to rely on, which helps). With something like
The Book Thief (a high-concept book narrated by Death), it comes down to writing the inventive query letter.
So as you take your plane, car, or unicycle to the 2010 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles, here are some new exclusive interviews with the Conference faculty for you to enjoy. (Uh... don't read them while driving or riding your unicycle. But you know, for all those hurry-up-and-wait travel day moments, these will be great reading... and they even count as doing your homework for the conference!)
Check out:
An interview with National Book Award-Winning Author M.T. Anderson, who is giving a Keynote tomorrow (Friday) morning. See what M.T. thinks is the difference between writing for MG and writing for YA. (hint: It has something to do with voice and duct tape.)
M.T. Anderson
An interview with Scholastic Editor Nick Eliopulos, in which you'll find out how many pages it takes for an editor to "know" whether a manuscript has potential for them or not, and also about how social media for a writer is like icing:
Nick Eliopulos
An interview with Literary Agent Josh Adams, where we talk boutique agencies, online portfolios, and if a writer (or an agent) needs a business card:
Josh Adams
Jolie Stekly's interview with Bonnie Bader, Editor-in-Chief of Grosset and Dunlap and Price Stern Sloan, where you can found out the scoop on Bonnie's two-part first page workshop - which is sure to be incredible!
Bonnie Bader at last year's conference
Martha Brockenbrough's interview with Newbury-Winning Author Linda Sue Park (Okay, it's not a NEW interview - , but I learn so much from Linda Sue Park every time I listen to her - if you missed it, check it out now!)
3 Comments on SCBWI Team Blog Suggests Some Travel Day Reading, last added: 7/31/2010
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Of all the exciting, useful and inspirational workshops and keynotes this one sits at the top of my list for the whole conference. I left filled with inspiration and hope for my own work as a writer/illustrator and even more for the reading lives of all our kids.
Thanks to everyone on the panel: to Lee Wind for your blog (I'm off to the library with a heavy list - we'll see how heavy it really is on the way back from the library), to Noah Woods for your cool little Tom Cat and encouraging us all to stop holding back, to Tony Valenzuela for pointing out that mainstream publishers ARE putting out GLBTQ work, to Nick Eliopulos for inviting queries, to Aaron Hartzler for moderating and writing your own story, and to Arthur Levine for showing us how simple and natural including LGBTQ characters can and should be.